It is well known that an extremely bright light which may contain a considerable amount of ultraviolet as well as infrared radiation is produced by typical welding operations. Extended exposure to such intense radiant energy may be very harmful to the welder's eye, and may cause radiant burning of the skin. In addition, sparks and heat from the welding process may cause localized conductive burning and discomfort. Thus, it is common practice for welders to make use of a helmet with a protective light filter arranged in front of the eyes, which helmet further offers protection from both radiant energy and localized burning and discomfort from sparks and heat. In addition, the welding operation may create toxic fumes, thus causing potential respiratory dangers. In these situations, the helmet my be attached to an air supply system that offers clean respiratory air, and in some instances conditioned air for added cooling or warming. To be effective, and to gain regulatory approval, the air supply system must incorporate a sealing system to the wearer's face, head, and in some cases neck to prevent contaminated air from entering the respiratory zone. This is not trivial, because the small air pressure within the breathing zone may drop to a negative pressure in certain time segments of the breathing cycle, depending on the size of the wearer, the level of exertion, etc. Thus, the sealing system must seal to a wide range of facial and head sizes comfortably, and also have a good sealing interface to the welding helmet. In addition, the sealing system must not impede the normal pivoting up and down procedure that many welders use to temporarily lift the helmet up for easy inspection of the work or setup, plus normal donning or removal from the head. Furthermore, this seal must be low in cost, preferably disposable, and easy to remove and replace as the sometimes hot, dirty conditions in which such helmets are used necessitates that the seal be changed frequently, sometimes daily, or even after each shift if the helmet has multiple users.
This invention provides a more economical, improved helmet sealing interface, and easier attachment method of the sealing system described above as compared to conventional methods.
In addition to a sealing system, this invention provides synergism by also offering novel helmet accessories which are also configured to operably engage with selected of the attachment means. Such helmet accessories provide increased protection to accommodate the range of physical features of the welders (e.g. long neck, long face, short neck, large head, large chest, etc.) or specific job applications such as, but not limited to, overhead welding, welding adjacent to another welder, welding while lying on back, or other confined situations.
Another example helmet accessory that may be selectively attached to welding helmets through the unique attachment mechanism of the present invention is a compact light device. Traditionally, welding helmets have employed vision windows that employ passive light filters having a sufficiently darkened shade to protect the user against the extremely bright light associated with the welding process. Typically, the shade utilized in such passive light filters is between 9 and 13. Due to the darkness of these passive light filters, the wearer must lift the helmet or remove the filter to clearly view objects in the line of vision. As such, the wearer is required to repeatedly lift and lower the helmet face shield throughout the work day in order to be able to visually inspect set-up, work progress, etc. More recently, auto-darkening filters have been incorporated into welding helmets in order to eliminate the need for the user to repeatedly lift and lower the helmet face shield. However, the “off” or least-tinted state of such auto-darkening filters is not fully transparent, but instead typically has a shade range of nearly 2 or 3, which represents the level of darkening commonly found in recreational sunglasses. In many cases, therefore, additional light is desired to better illuminate the field of vision external to the welding helmet such that the user need not lift and lower the face shield. A light device accessory that is selectively and removably securable to the helmet face shield accordingly provides an appropriate source of light for the wearer to selectively use.
An additional difficulty for wearers of welding helmets is in communicating while the helmet face shield is in the lowered position. To overcome this problem, a speaker system may be selectively secured to the welding helmet via the attachment mechanism of the present invention. Since the envisioned attachment mechanism preferably incorporates a plurality of distinct attachment features, a plurality of distinct helmet accessories may be utilized separately or simultaneously in combination with one another.